SPIRALLING debts have forced Huntingdon’s BRJ Club to close.

The sports and social organisation has shut its premises in Sallowbush Road after it was unable to pay a mounting £400,000 deficit.

The club said it was offered a glimmer of hope from an investor who apparently agreed to take on the club’s debts, but the plan came to nothing when legal documentation could not be finalised.

It means the 36-year-old voluntary group had to declare itself insolvent and close its doors.

Charlie Jacques, who was one of the club’s founders, told The Hunts Post he hopes a new buyer might take over the site and re-establish the club that once had a thriving social scene.

“It’s very sad to see it go,” he said. “People did their best to save it but, unfortunately, it never had the support of the younger generation.”

Maurice Bastini and Tony Rigby joined forces with Mr Jacques to establish the project in 1972 and opened a venue two years later.

The organisation’s initials were made up of its founding fathers after the trio borrowed £53,000 from Charrington’s Brewery, in St Ives, to get the group up and running.

In 2000, the club was proving to be so successful it was extended and a new mortgage taken out.

However, that later turned out to be its undoing when the voluntary committee struggled to find the funds to pay back the loan and other debts.

There did seem to be hope for the club in October 2009 when Charlies Angels Solutions became involved, but Mr Jacques said legal documents needed to complete the move could not be finalised, meaning BRJ was back to square one.

“The club was built on the support of the community,” Mr Jacques said. “However, that part of the community got too old and the youngsters did not take it on.

“It had a good time while it was there but youngsters are not used to committees.”

He said “various people who would have been interested never came to anything” but added it was possible the venue could be re-established as part of a new organisation after November.